Plato: Timaeus · 9 of 50 · tr. Benjamin Jowett
Section 1i
And being free from jealousy, he desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be.
This is in the truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do well in believing on the testimony of wise men: God desired that all things should be good and nothing bad, so far as this was attainable.
Wherefore also finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion, out of disorder he brought order, considering that this was in every way better than the other.
Now the deeds of the best could never be or have been other than the fairest; and the creator, reflecting on the things which are by nature visible, found that no unintelligent creature taken as a whole was fairer than the intelligent taken as a whole; and that intelligence could not be present in anything which was devoid of soul.
For which reason, when he was framing the universe, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature fairest and best.
Wherefore, using the language of probability, we may say that the world became a living creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of God.
This being supposed, let us proceed to the next stage: In the likeness of what animal did the Creator make the world?
It would be an unworthy thing to liken it to any nature which exists as a part only; for nothing can be beautiful which is like any imperfect thing; but let us suppose the world to be the very image of that whole of which all other animals both individually and in their tribes are portions.
For the original of the universe contains in itself all intelligible beings, just as this world comprehends us and all other visible creatures.
For the Deity, intending to make this world like the fairest and most perfect of intelligible beings, framed one visible animal comprehending within itself all other animals of a kindred nature.
Are we right in saying that there is one world, or that they are many and infinite?
There must be one only, if the created copy is to accord with the original.
For that which includes all other intelligible creatures cannot have a second or companion; in that case there would be need of another living being which would include both, and of which they would be parts, and the likeness would be more truly said to resemble not them, but that other which included them.
In order then that the world might be solitary, like the perfect animal, the creator made not two worlds or an infinite number of them; but there is and ever will be one only-begotten and created heaven.
Now that which is created is of necessity corporeal, and also visible and tangible.
And nothing is visible where there is no fire, or tangible which has no solidity, and nothing is solid without earth.
Wherefore also God in the beginning of creation made the body of the universe to consist of fire and earth.
But two things cannot be rightly put together without a third; there must be some bond of union between them.
And the fairest bond is that which makes the most complete fusion of itself and the things which it combines; and proportion is best adapted to effect such a union.
For whenever in any three numbers, whether cube or square, there is a mean, which is to the last term what the first term is to it; and again, when the mean is to the first term as the last term is to the mean-then the mean becoming first and last, and the first and last both becoming means, they will all of them of necessity come to be the same, and having become the same with one another will be all one.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The passage explicitly describes God's creative acts using human-like desires ('desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be').
All passages →Correspondencecosmology
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The text states the world is the image of the original intelligible beings and that this world comprehends us and all other visible creatures.
All passages →Divine Providencetheology
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The text emphasizes God's active ordering of creation to bring order from disorder and endow the world with soul and intelligence.
All passages →Evil As Privationtheology
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
The passage argues that nothing is bad and evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack of the good attainable.
All passages →Living Godtheology
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
God is described as active and providential in framing the universe rather than an abstract principle.
All passages →Logoscosmology
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The text mentions intelligence being put into soul as a mediating principle between God and the material world. [quarantine-w4: logos x platonism — see rellm data/quarantine/dossiers.jsonl]
All passages →Numerical Mysticismtheology
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage includes a detailed explanation of proportions and means in numbers to achieve fusion.
All passages →Unity Of Beingtheology
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The Creator made one world solitary and the universe consists of a single, unified body.
All passages →Related passages · 10 parallels
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